Lace, Bib and Bread

Very slowly I've been knitting Ink Spot the scarf version of Fountain Pen Shawl in the current issue of Interweave Knits. I find it difficult to keep working on such dark stitches. I usually sit in direct sunlight in the morning and knit a dozen rows before I start the rest of my day.


The yarn is Knit Picks Shadow in Midnight. The picture looks like a solid black yarn but it has touches of blue-green in it. (Think Black Watch Plaid in the blender - those colors) One more picture - yeah, I know, unblocked lace looks like a blob.



I completely flaked out on SockMadness. My yarn was picked out and I was right there that Thurday morning when the pattern was released but Ink Spot was calling to me and when I cast-on it was lace weight in my hand rather than sock yarn. I feel so wicked.

Lace yarn has a tendency to either stick to itself or the whole ball falls apart, especially if it has a high silk content. Here's a picture of have I keep my yarn safe and secure.



I store it in an empty CD spindle package. The yarn is secure on the spindle; safe from dust, falling onto the floor and nosey cats. My family of Photographers kindly keep me supplied with empty DVD cases.



I finished a bib in cotton dishcloth yarn. (I'm not sure which brand as there was no label on this ball. I'm thinking it's Peaches & Creme because I bought a grab bag of yarn from them several years ago and none of them came with labels.)



The pattern is here. Overall it's a very good pattern and lends itself to what ever you can imagine. You could adapt this pattern to any dishcloth pattern for the first six inches. I would try a few things differently next time; I'd use an I-cord bind-off across the front neck, I'd taper a bit the bands that go around the neck and I did enlarge the button hole. (Trying to get tiny buttons done on a squirmy baby isn't fun.)

I've been trying the recipes in the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day." It really is an extremely simple recipe with no kneading. I've gotten some very good bread and they look every bit as good as the loaf on the cover. And the Smell when it's baking is just heaven!



My problem is my refrigerator - I HATE my side-by-side! I just don't have room to store the bread dough container. Since I won't be keeping the book because of my "stupidly designed refrig" I thought I'd give it away here. Anyone that's interested leave me a comment (be sure and leave an email address so I can let you know you won.) I'll mail it to anyone in the US or Canada - sorry everywhere else USPS is just too expensive.

So if you have a decent refrigerator and like to bake this book is for you. Leave me a comment by next Thursday April 9 at 9 p.m. PDT.

Do you read the Rainey Sister's Blog? The last two days Susan has been showing a method for keeping count of rows, increases and decreases as you knit. Sure makes sense to me.

Repurposing Kureyon

I mentioned I bought 8 skeins of Noro Kureyon 213 to make the Sandy Cardigan, well...
There's this pattern that's been calling to me for awhile now, the Side-to-Side Vest from Creative Knitting, Nov 2007.

The amount of Kureyon I'd bought for the Cardigan is exactly the right amount for this Vest. And in a moment of weakness I grabbed the bag of Kureyon from the Stash and cast-on and haven't looked back.

The colors look very washed out in this picture. Below is a badly framed shot that has truer colors.

The only difficult part is trying to make the colors go in the opposite direction from the center back. Noro doesn't wind their yarn the same direction skein to skein even with them all from the same dye lot. I'd like the fronts to at least suggest they match but I think that's going to be harder than I originally thought.

I finished the Midwest Moonlight Scarf from Scarf Style.

This was an enjoyable project; the stitch pattern was easy to memorize and from then on it was mindless knitting. This is for a Christmas Gift - that's one done.
Ravelry listing here. Used 5 skeins of Noro Silk Garden 284 with all the orange removed for 27 pattern repeats; probably could have squeeked by with 4 skeins.

Here's a look at my own pattern for a cabled sock. I've pulled it out twice so far. Cherry Tree Hill, no idea what the name of the color is - I've had it several years.


This weekend I finished spinning the Roving from Creatively Dyed

I tried to split the roving lengthwise into four equal pieces. Funny how one skein is so much bluer than the other. Here's what the original fiber looked like.

This is 8 ounces of 70% superwash Merino 30% Seacell fiber.

On several foodie blogs there has been talk about Mark Bittman's Tomato Jam recipe. I had everything in the house

so I made a batch yesterday.

The whole house smelled like an Indian Restaurant while it was cooking. After all the chopping, measuring and stirring I barely had 2 cups but it was worth it. This stuff is fabulous. We were eating it warm on crackers with goat cheese. I'll have more tomatoes than I know what to do with so I'll be making more. I wonder what it would be like made from yellow tomatoes?

Smokin' Socks

I finished the first sock of Knitspot's Smokin' Socks pattern. I LOVE Anne Hanson's patterns! This is two out of two patterns I've purchased from her that have been good patterns, fun and interesting to knit and the most well written pattern I've ever read.

I did fiddle with perfection and change from her short-row heel which isn't deep enough for me to a regular flap and gusset heel.


This is knit in lightweight Socks That Rock seconds that I bought at Black Sheep Gathering last month. See how interesting the heel flap looks in this yarn. (Like to comment that the only thing I saw that might have made this yarn a second was one knot. And the color pattern wasn't interrupted or reversed as I've seen in other yarns that were sold as firsts. Hope the other five skeins are as near perfect as this one.)

Here's a close up of the pattern stitch

It's a rib stitch worked over 72 stitches for a woman's size medium

This stitch made a fabulous ruffled edge


I've already cast-on for the second sock; they are a joy to knit.

The yarn store where I work has started carrying a new yarn dyed by a customer. When I got to work on Wednesday there were very few skeins to choose from; I was told that the yarn was a big hit!

It's from mama blue knitting goods.
This is Merino Semi-Solid Sock Yarn, 4 ounces/435 yards. 100% Superwash Merino.
7-9 stitches/inch with US 0-2 needles. This is colorway Juniper.

I am still spinning in the Tour de Fleece


No pictures as it's rather boring looking; a white alpaca/silk roving that I'm spinning at 37 wpi. Hoping I get enough yardage for a lace shawl.

Remember the roving I dyed that was vandalized by some varmit? Most of the dirt and VM washed out and it's very usable. Only problem is that it was suppose to make one think of the Rider's National Flags. I'm sorry but it looks more like a Jamaican Team Jersey.


Even if the colors are beyond wild the fiber is very nice; I'm looking forward to spinning it. It's a Superwash Corriedale Roving that was given to me by Wendy of Lanas de Libelula. I had quite a time washing out all the dirt and VM from being opened and dragged through the dirt plus yellow dye which never would come clear, yet it didn't felt, pill or anything else from all the washing and rinsing. That's a great roving!

Last Saturday I turned this

into 12 pints of Apricot-Pineapple Jam; a family favorite.

Miter Report

Here's the current progress shot of my miter thing.


I've been toying with the idea of a bag but I'm still just playing. Several very nice people have offered to send me some sock yarn leftovers. Thank you very much - this is the kindness of knitters part. I've also done two yarn swaps on Good Yarn Karma
Yarn for sock yarn leftovers.

I have people write to me in the comments section asking questions that I would reply to but I can't because I have no address. When you comment as annoymous I see no address to reply to. Really, it seems so rude not to answer you; I would if I could. In the top left hand corner of my blog, next to my picture, my email address is right there if you would like to get in touch with me without posting a comment.

The San Diego County Fair is coming up and I've been working on entries in the Spinning Division. They have a new catagory this year of Hand-dyed, Handspun. I started playing around with dry dyeing. Usually you soak your fleece before applying dye; as you have all ready figured out dry dyeing is where you apply the dye to dry fleece.

have to say the method is a mess since the dye doesn't soak in. I'm pleased with the end product.

here's a close up of the fingering weight 2-ply I spun from this dry-dyed merino superwash


I also played with dyeing a DK weight I spun


here's a close-up


which would you enter?

Changing the topic to cooking, have you seen the blog My Husband Cooks? Just for fun here's what my Husband made two nights ago


#2 Daughter gave him a wok for his Birthday and he's been stir-frying like a Pro ever since. This time he made a Cantonese Chicken and Mushroom Stir-fry.

And lastly a good picture of my little black cat, Sammie. (It's not easy photographing a black cat; The Photographer gets credit for this one.)


That's what's been going on here...

Cooking Tuesday

Youngest Daughter had a day off from work and offered to come over and help decorate the house for Christmas. (Yeah, I don't care for the decorating part of the holidays. It's not a bah humbug thing it's just that it's time away from knitting and sewing.)

I had a table full of ingredients that I'd bought to make the Cranberry Orange Bread recipe that I found in the December 2006 issue of Sunset Magazine. When Youngest Daughter saw the flour, sugar and dried cranberries she decided she'd rather bake than decorate.

Fine with me!! She started measuring and mixing while I grated orange rind and squeezed them for juice. (She pointed out that this was the first time we'd done Christmas baking where I was the Baker's support team which has traditionally been her role. She did a couple decades of helping Mom and Grandma bake for the Holidays. Time she took over I'd say!) I enjoyed the supporting role; and the whole day.

Here you have 9 mini and 1 full size loaves of Cranberry Orange Pecan Nut Bread and 5 mini loaves of Lemon Poppy Seed Bread. (I should have cleaned up before taking the picture; they're still on the racks we used for cooling and glazing.)



That wasn't enough cooking. I then made two trays of beef and cheese enchiladas. Here's the tray we baked; the other went into the freezer.


The day ended with the following score: 15 loaves of Nut Bread - two trays of enchiladas - and three dishwasher loads.

Oh, and we did get the living room decorated too.